I have always admired
"The Raft of
the Medusa", the humongous oil painting hanging on the wall at the
Louvre in France. I thought it would be fascinating to try and capture
the romantic and epic feel of that painting in my beloved wet plate
collodion process. So I asked for volunteers and collaborators on
Facebook and we had a full crew within 15 minutes. So over the eight
months we collaborated as a group.

We will be recreating the epic and tragic voyage of the Medusa, the 1816
tragedy as sea. Only 15 people survived, one of which was the woman
Charlotte Picard who later wrote about this horrific adventure. We are
basing our inspiration on the 1818 painting by Theodore Gericault called
“The Raft of the Medusa”. I am calling this wet plate “The Capsizing of
Humanity” to point back to the tragedy itself and to also illuminate the
present state of affairs around the world.

I thought the greatest and most rewarding challenge of
this shoot would to be not to have water. A crazy thought for a raft
scene at sea. We could have staged
something down by the river bottoms I suppose, but I had this idea of doing
the boat scene in the open plains and that is exactly what we did.
Paul Noot the local art instructor at Bismarck High School for decades was
in charge of taking sheets of plastic and cotton batting to transforming
them into the torrid water around the boat. Jason Lueder a master wood
carpenter took a pile of abandoned wood and transformed it into our raft,
the raft that would carry our castaways to safety.

The day of the shoot we had 30mph winds,
overcast skies and a constant drizzle of rain. None of these variable are
conducive to making a good wet plate, but we endured. I am forever
grateful to every single person who was involved and I am so proud that the
final plate along with the Credits Page of everyone involved will be
archived by the Historical Society of North Dakota indefinitely. What
is very important is that nobody was paid or is making any money from this
collaboration. Who says a community cannot come together for nothing
more than a chance to create a piece of art together? I heart is full
with the love that I received that day.

In June 1816, the
French frigateMéduse departed from
Rochefort, bound for the Senegalese port of Saint-Louis. She headed a convoy
of three other ships: the storeshipLoire, the
brigArgus and the corvetteÉcho. Viscount
Hugues Duroy de Chaumereys had been appointed captain of the frigate despite
having scarcely sailed in 20 years.[4][5]
After the wreck, public outrage mistakenly attributed responsibility for his
appointment to Louis XVIII, though his was a
routine naval appointment made within the Ministry of the Navy and far
outside the concerns of the monarch.[6]
The frigate's mission was to accept the British return of Senegal under the
terms of France's acceptance of the Peace of Paris. The appointed
French governor of Senegal, Colonel Julien-Désiré Schmaltz, and his
wife and daughter were among the passengers.[7]

In an effort to make good time, the
Méduse overtook the other ships, but due to poor navigation it drifted
100 miles (161 km) off course. On 2 July, it ran aground on a sandbank off
the West African coast, near today's Mauritania. The collision was
widely blamed on the incompetence of De Chaumereys, a returned émigré who lacked experience and
ability, but had been granted his commission as a result of an act of
political preferment.[8][9][10]
Efforts to free the ship failed, so, on 5 July, the frightened passengers
and crew started an attempt to travel the 60 miles (97 km) to the African
coast in the frigate's six boats. Although the Méduse was carrying
400 people, including 160 crew, there was space for only about 250 in the
boats. The remainder of the ship's complement—at least 146 men and one
woman—were piled onto a hastily built raft, that partially submerged once it
was loaded. Seventeen crew members opted to stay aboard the grounded
Méduse. The captain and crew aboard the other boats intended to tow the
raft, but after only a few miles the raft was turned loose.[11]
For sustenance the crew of the raft had only a bag of ship's biscuit
(consumed on the first day), two casks of water (lost overboard during
fighting) and six casks of wine.[12]

According to critic Jonathan Miles,
the raft carried the survivors "to the frontiers of human experience.
Crazed, parched and starved, they slaughtered mutineers, ate their dead
companions and killed the weakest."[8][13]
After 13 days, on 17 July 1816, the raft was rescued by the Argus by
chance—no particular search effort was made by the French for the raft.[14]
By this time only 15 men were still alive; the others had been killed or
thrown overboard by their comrades, died of starvation, or thrown themselves
into the sea in despair.[15]
The incident became a huge public embarrassment for the French monarchy,
only recently restored to power after Napoleon's defeat in 1815.[16][17]

Copyright Note: All referenced photographs, images and logos provided
above are for informational purposes only and they are the property of their
respective owners. Mike LaLonde, Chad Nodland and Tom Wirtz were
photographers kind enough to bring their cameras to the Raft and provide images as part
of the collaboration.